Study of impedance spectra for dry and wet EarEEG electrodes

EarEEG is a novel recordings concept where electrodes are embedded on the surface of an earpiece customized to the individual anatomical shape of the users ear. A key parameter for recording EEG signals of good quality is a stable and low impedance electrode-body interface. This study characterizes the impedance for dry and wet EarEEG electrodes in a study of 10 subjects. A custom made and automated setup was used to characterize the impedance spectrum from 0.1 Hz-2 kHz. The study of dry electrodes showed a mean (standard deviation) low frequency impedance of the canal electrodes of 1.2 MΩ (1.4 MΩ) and the high frequency impedance was 230 kΩ (220 kΩ). For wet electrodes the low frequency impedance was 34 kΩ (37 kΩ) and the high frequency impedance was 5.1 kΩ (4.4 kΩ). The high standard deviation of the impedance for dry electrodes imposes very high requirements for the input impedance of the amplifier in order to achieve an acceptable common-mode rejection. The wet electrode impedance was in line with what is typical for a wet electrode interface.